Tackling the cost of equity research

The axe is swinging with a vengeance through equity research departments and the big brokerage firms are now having to take a long hard look at the number of stocks they cover.

Over the past year the big banks have already cut the number of analysts they employ in Europe by up to a third, but the process is far from complete with Deutsche Bank and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSSB) the latest to embark on a fresh round of cost-cutting in equities.